Hungarian Grammar For Beginners

When do you use imperative mood?

I mean you use it when you give an order to someone to do something. But what other situation requires it? Well, usually when English uses these constructions:

1. indirect object + to + verb: He wants me togo.

2. for + indirect object + to + verb: It’s time formetogo.

These sentences could be said (if English used that solution) with subjunctive mood:

1. He wants that I go.

2. It’s time thatI go.

When it comes to subjunctive mood, you use the conjunction THAT and you put the verb in subjunctive mood. However, as English verbs has no more than three forms, there is no suffix or ending which would show us it is that mood.

Hungarian, in turn, uses this subjunctive mood-like solution by saying the conjunction HOGY (=that) and putting the verb in imperative mood. So the two sentences above sound like this in Hungarian.

1. Azt akarja, hogymenjek. = He wants thatI go. (metogo)

2. Ideje, hogymenjek. = It’s time thatI go. (for me togo)

Let’s see a summary from another point of view:

metogo = thatI go = hogymenjek

for metogo = thatI go = hogymenjek

So me…go and for me… go is equal to I go and the to preposition is equal to the conjunction that.